Seven Dead, 60 Infected By Tick Borne Virus In China

The number of coronavirus cases are increasing, the world is grappling to contain the virus. Now, there is a new fear. According to official reports, seven people died and 60 people were affected so far due to a tick-borne virus. The health officials are warning of the risk of its human to human transmission.

The state-run Global Times quoted, "In the first half of the year, more than 37 people in East China's Jiangsu Province contracted with the SFTS virus (Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome) and later, 23 people were found to have been infected in the province of Anhui in East China."

SFTS was first reported in Central China in 2009, since then the country isolated the pathogen in 2011. The pathogen of the virus belongs to the category Bunyavirus, a family of arthropod-borne and rodent-borne viruses. Virologists believe that the infection could have been transmitted to humans by ticks and that the virus could be transmitted between humans.

A woman from Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu, who suffered from the virus displayed the symptoms such as fever and coughing. Doctors have found a drop in the count of leukocyte and blood platelets. She was discharged from the hospital after one month of treatment.

Sheng Jifang, a doctor at Zhejiang University's first affiliated hospital asserted that the risk of human to human transmission could not be excluded; There are high chances that patients could transfer the virus via blood or mucosa to others. Doctors said that people need to be cautious and there is no need to panic over such virus contagion.